The printing industry has recognized the need for flexibility in producing different versions of the same publication to be mailed to users in the same geographical location, and the value of printing personalized messages (e.g. directed to a specific consumer or group of consumers) on each publication. Ink jet printing is commonly used for producing such personalized messages in these publications.
One method of conveying printed products uses a gripper conveyor. A gripper conveyor includes a plurality of gripper elements that accommodate a plurality of single printed products in shingled (i.e. overlapping) relation. These gripper conveyors are particularly useful because they are capable of conveying printed products at a high rate. However, when printed products are conveyed by such gripper conveyors, ink jet printing is limited to the exposed, non-overlapped portion of the product, as is generally described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,538,161.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,116 discloses an apparatus that can print on the full page of signatures. The disclosed printing apparatus removes signatures from a stack and separates the signatures for printing. The signatures are subsequently fed to a collating conveyor where the signatures are gathered to form a book block.